1. Carl Edwards

Rarely has a championship contender fallen so far. Edwards came within a point of winning the 2011 Sprint Cup championship, losing a tiebreaker to Tony Stewart after leading the standings most of the season.

A year later, nothing went right for Edwards. Not only did he go winless but he scored just three top-five finishes — he had 19 in 2011 — and missed the Chase for the Sprint Cup. After a midseason crew chief change, Edwards’ struggles continued and he wound up 15th in the final standings.

As the long season wore on, the easy-going Edwards admitted that the frustrations began to mount.

"I will never let myself get used to running like this," he said. "I guess if it stopped being frustrating, then I would have to worry."

2. Kyle Busch

It’s one thing for Busch to call it the worst season of his career — he’s never happy unless he’s winning — but the numbers back him up.

In 2011, Busch won 18 races over NASCAR’s top three series. He won 24 in 2010, and has 105 in his career. And he’s only 27.

But in 2012, Busch won just one race. All year. Across all three series.

His lone victory came in the May Cup race at Richmond. He was 0-22 in the Nationwide Series and 0-3 in the Truck Series. He even struggled as a team owner, his Kyle Busch Motorsports team winning just one Nationwide race and only once in trucks.

But nowhere was he more frustrated than in Sprint Cup, where he led the second-most laps and finished second four times, but won only once.

He also missed the Chase for just the second time in the past seven years, winding up 13th in the final standings.

“I’ve got to start living different, I guess,” said Busch, who called it the “absolute worst season of my career.”

3. Kevin Harvick

Harvick won a race and wound up eighth in the final standings, but that was a far cry from what he was looking for.

The Richard Childress Racing driver finished third in the standings in 2010-11 and was so disappointed that he demanded a new crew chief.

He got one, and it didn’t work out. With Shane Wilson, Harvick struggled just to make the Chase — he was ninth at the end of the regular season — and continued to struggle until Gil Martin, his old crew chief, rejoined him.

Only his victory in the next-to-last race of the season salvaged a really disappointing season, and even that might have come too late. The same weekend, news leaked that Harvick already has a deal in place to leave RCR for Stewart-Haas Racing after 2013.

4. Jeff Gordon

It’s been a long time since Gordon has had such an up-and-down season, and such an eventful year.

He won two races and made the Chase, but he could have accomplished so much more — if not for things like bad luck, silly mistakes and a wreck that ignited a crew brawl and cost him 25 points.

Gordon suffered all kinds of misfortune early in the season and sunk as low as 24th in the standings. But he rallied to climb into wild-card contention and then made the Chase with a magnificent runnerup finish at Richmond.

He needed pit strategy and a bit of luck to win both races — rain at Pocono and fuel mileage at Homestead — but had stretches where he was outstanding (six top-fives in seven races).

But all of that was overshadowed by the incident at Phoenix, where Gordon retaliated against Clint Bowyer, starting a brawl in the garage between their two teams. The incident cost him $100,000 and 25 points and left him a disappointing 10th in the final standings.

5. Tony Stewart

How can you win three races and have a disappointing season?

Win five — all in the Chase — and put together one of the most remarkable rallies in recent history to win the Cup championship.

That’s what Stewart did in 2011, so anything short of that was going to be a bit disappointing.

But despite three first-half wins, Stewart struggled much of the season. He never climbed higher than third in points and ran near the bottom half of the top 10 most of the year.

A year after his amazing championship run, Stewart had just four top-10s in the Chase and finished 17th or worse in five of the 10 races.

His ninth-place finish in the standings was the second-worst of his career.

Things got so bad for Stewart in 2012 that he had to find new sponsors to replace Office Depot and take the blame for a 24-car pileup at Talladega.

6. Ryan Newman

Newman looked like he might be headed for a big season when he won at Martinsville in just the sixth race of the season.

But that all changed in a hurry. Newman finished 15th or worse in his next five races and didn’t score another top-10 finish for 11 weeks.

After that he never climbed back into the top 10 in points and missed the Chase for the second time in three years.

Though he finished strong — fifth and third in the final two races — he had just six top-fives all season and wound up 14th in the final standings.

7. Kurt Busch

After going off on ESPN reporter Dr. Jerry Punch in the 2011 season finale, Busch was released from Penske Racing a few weeks later.

It’s been all downhill from there.

With no competitive rides available, Busch joined single-car, underfunded Phoenix Racing and vowed to just have fun.

It was anything but.

Busch scored just two top-10 finishes in 30 races with the team and week after week brought another mishap that left him finishing near the rear of the field.

For a temperamental driver like Busch, such streaks are hard to take, and he didn’t handle it well. He was placed on probation for a confrontation with Ryan Newman’s pit crew at Darlington in May, and then was suspended for a race for threatening a reporter at Dover in June.

Things did end on a high note, though. After joining Furniture Row Racing at the end of the year, he finished in the top 10 in the final three races.

Still, his five top-10s and 25th-place finish in the standings were his worst since his rookie year in 2001.

8. AJ Allmendinger

This was supposed to be a breakout season for Allmendinger. Instead, his career took a turn for the worse.

After replacing Busch at Penske Racing, Allmendinger seemed poise for big things. But he struggled early, scoring just one top-10 finish in his first 15 races before failing a NASCAR drug test in July.

Allmendinger missed 13 races after being suspended by NASCAR and released by Penske. He spent the rest of the year looking for a new ride, trying to repair his image and resurrect his career.

After finishing 32nd in the final standings, he currently has no ride for 2013.

9. Earnhardt Ganassi Racing

After Juan Pablo Montoya finished 21st and Jamie McMurray 27th in the standings in 2011, team owner Chip Ganassi called his team’s performance “pathetic.”

He vowed to fix his team’s problems and made major changes to his organization.

It did little good.

McMurray finished 21st and Montoya 22nd in 2012 and the two former winners combined for just five top-10 finishes and no top-fives.

The two drivers, who combined for four wins in 2010, failed to finish nine races and spent most weeks battling just to finish in the top 20.

EGR clearly has fallen way behind the elite teams and is struggling just to remain mediocre.

10. Jeff Burton

Burton also was looking for a bounce-back year after suffering the worst season of his career in 2011 — just two top-10s and 20th in points.

He was better, but not much.

Burton, who has 21 career victories, had just two top-five and six top-10 finishes and wound up 19th in the final standings.

Burton, 45, has not won a race in four years and will be looking to bounce back again in what might be his final season at RCR.